Giffords Is Making Progress ‘Every Day,’ Gillibrand Says on NBC

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head in last weekend’s Arizona rampage, is making steady progress, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

“She’s doing great,” Gillibrand, a friend, said yesterday. “I talked to her husband Mark last night. She’s making progress every day.”

While it’s “far too early” for the congresswoman to speak, Gillibrand said, “she’s using both sides of her body. She’s able to breathe on her own. She’s able to open her eyes and understand and show people she understands what she’s hearing and seeing.”

Giffords began breathing without a ventilator on Jan. 15 as doctors took out the breathing tube that had run down her throat and replaced it with a tracheotomy tube in her windpipe. Surgeons also inserted a feeding tube.

Giffords “has been upgraded to serious condition from critical because she is no longer on a ventilator,” the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, said in a statement on its website yesterday. “The Congresswoman continues to do well. She is breathing on her own.”

Doctors previously said Giffords, a 40-year-old Arizona Democrat, was making major strides in her recovery, opening her eyes and beginning physical therapy. She is able to communicate and move her legs on command.

The Jan. 8 shooting attack, allegedly by Jared Loughner, killed six people and wounded 13.

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head in last weekend s Arizona rampage, is making steady progress, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said on NBC s Meet the Press program. She s doing great, Gillibrand, a friend, said yesterday. I talked to her...